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Well this was unexpected! 3D Realms is back, teaming up with Voidpoint for a brand new FPS named Ion Maiden [Steam, Official Site] and the first part is now available in Early Access with Linux support.

It's using an upgraded version of their "Build engine" to include bigger levels, more colour support and many more modern features. However, they said it's being built using original old-school tools and methodologies. They say it's the "true successor to classic shooters such as Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior and Blood".

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From the press release I got sent today:

Ion Maiden laughs at the idea of constant checkpoints and straight paths through shooting galleries. But just because this is a true old-school first-person shooter doesn’t mean there won’t be all the good new stuff the last two decades have brought. Headshots? Hell yeah. More physics and interactivity? You betcha. Widescreen, controller support, and Auto Saves? 3D Realms and Voidpoint took the best of both worlds and cooked it all into a bloody stew.

3D Realms and Voidpoint are proud to bring back the Build engine, which powered Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, and Shadow Warrior, in all of its hand-crafted pixelated glory. They’ve spent a lot of time tinkering under the hood to take advantage of new technology and techniques. Bigger levels, hundreds of new colors, and morphing maps that transform mid-level are all just a few of the advancements made to the engine.

On top of crafting an oldschool FPS with modern touches, they are also hinting at some form of multiplayer too.

"Bringing back classic build-engine shooters has been our aim for years, so we’re diving right into a spiritual successor to the games which put 3D Realms on the map,” Frederik Schreiber, Vice President, 3D Realms. "The team assembled for this project knows exactly how to execute our vision, and we couldn't be more excited to finally bring back a true 3D Realms shooter."

Pretty nice that it has full Linux support—exciting! The current version is a "polished exclusive multi-hour preview campaign", with a plan for the full game to be ready in "Q3" of this year.

You can grab it from Steam, or from their official site for a fully DRM free build. From what I understand it will also head to GOG sometime as well, but I've not been told when.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Mblackwell Mar 18, 2018
It includes some balance tweaks, bug fixes, and the first of some performance improvements we'll be rolling out.
kneekoo Mar 18, 2018
Almost 3 weeks have passed since this news popped out. I wonder what's the lowest spec PC used to play Ion Maiden in a decent manner. And considering the developers keep shooting for performance improvements, I wonder if there's any structured way and place to go to report the findings of running Ion Maiden on gradually slower PCs.

Not that there should be a point in trying to run the game on an old Pentium II, but it would be seriously cool if you could do that, at lower resolution, with a Voodoo graphics accelerator or something pushed as far as the technology can offer for that period of hardware possibilities. Or maybe a Pentium III with 256MB of RAM? It's still insanely far below the 2GB of RAM minimum requirement, but it would be cool to know exactly what's the lowest hardware and software requirement possible, because many people still have some old PCs catching dust, and reviving them for a new retro game would add more greatness to the feeling.

Now with Build being so CPU-intensive and Ion Maiden having much larger sprites and other we're probably better off running Ion Maiden on a reasonably good Pentium 4 with a decent graphics card, but I still wonder why DirectX 11 is a requirement. For instance, both the GeForce 8600 GT and Radeon HD 4670 are DirectX 10 cards. But wouldn't DirectX 9 be enough? That goes way back to the Windows 98 era, up to Windows XP, and I bet there still are some old and crusty PCs that sit around doing nothing with Windows XP on them. :P Firing up those oldies with a modern game would be awesome.

So what kind of PCs have you people tried Ion Maiden on so far?

Oh, and the 64-bit requirement seems a bit funny for a game based on EDuke32. :D We do have 32-bit builds, so why not a 32-bit Ion Maiden? At least at some point in the future. Is 64-bit really required for a 256-color palette retro game?


Last edited by kneekoo on 18 March 2018 at 9:23 pm UTC
Shmerl Mar 18, 2018
Quoting: kneekooIs 64-bit really required for a 256-color palette retro game?

Why would you want to mess with 32-bit binaries on 64-bit systems? No one is using 32-bit Linux anymore.
kneekoo Mar 18, 2018
I mentioned our old computers, and most of them are 32-bit. I'm sure you can easily imagine an old P4 CPU like Willamette, Northwood and even the first batch of Prescott (not its later "E0" revision) having 2GB-4GB of RAM and a 256MB/512MB graphics card - because hard-core gamers had those back in the day. So going back to an old gaming rig with Ion Maiden would be sweet.

A few of my earlier questions were partially covered by the following interview, but it would still be great to know the game runs (and further evolves) on older hardware. :)
View video on youtube.com


Last edited by kneekoo on 18 March 2018 at 11:32 pm UTC
Shmerl Mar 18, 2018
Quoting: kneekooI mentioned our old computers, and most of them are 32-bit.

I guess their goal was not to run the game on vintage computers, but to provide old look'n'feel for modern ones.
kneekoo Mar 18, 2018
They are clearly not aiming for running the game on such old hardware, but some valuable feedback coming from people having it could help the game's optimizations. And the easiest way to enable this kind of testing is by having 32-bit builds. Who knows where it leads? :D
Comandante Ñoñardo Mar 19, 2018
Quoting: Shmerl
Quoting: kneekooIs 64-bit really required for a 256-color palette retro game?

Why would you want to mess with 32-bit binaries on 64-bit systems? No one is using 32-bit Linux anymore.

I agree with kneekoo.
If it is a retro game with retro graphics using a retro game engine, it should work on retro machines with retro hardware and retro operative systems.
tuubi Mar 19, 2018
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Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoIf it is a retro game with retro graphics using a retro game engine, it should work on retro machines with retro hardware and retro operative systems.
Why?
kneekoo Mar 19, 2018
Read my previous posts (page 12).
tuubi Mar 19, 2018
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Quoting: kneekooRead my previous posts (page 12).
I did read the whole thread. Still don't see what they would gain, beyond some geek cred.

(By the way, the amount of pages depends on your settings. For me there are 3 pages.)
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